How a plastic cup made NBA become fashionable
it triggered a change that dominate an industry now...
To explain what I meant in the title, we have to go back to that Friday, November 19th, 2004. The Indiana Pacers is facing off with the Detroit Pistons for the champion title, the game was coming to the end with the Pacers leading 97 to 82. The teams were not friendly towards each other because of the heated game fro the Eastern Conference Final from the previous year. *There were so many back stories to this event, please look it up if you want to know more* Pistons Ben Wallace wanted to try for a layup shot, but it was met with a harsh fouled from behind by Pacers Ron Artest, Wallace turned around and shoved Artest so hard that he almost fell over.
A heated fight broke out amongst the players, and the cameras sees Artest walked away to lay down on the scorer’s table to rest due to his anxiety attacks that he was suffering for the entire season. And, all of the sudden, a blue plastic cup came flying down to attack him from the audience. Artest flew off of the table and attacked a fan that he thought has threw the cup, by this point, chaos followed. This event is now known as the ‘Malice at the Palace’.
After this event took place, especially during this early 2000s, the league was facing a lot of racial issues, and there was an unfair assumptions being made by the American media and public that the players were thugs. David Stern, the former NBA Commissioner made a decision to market the league into a better image, so on October 17th, 2005, he made NBA the first sports league to enforce a dress code, the dress code strictly indicated that all players need to wear ‘business casual’ attire, which prohibited anyone to wear head gear of any kinda, as well as any chains, pendants, or medallion to be wore over their clothing. Most of the fans and players felt this move was a crisis response to bad publicity and an attempt to distance the sport from its roots of hip hop culture.
One of the most outspoken critics of this rule was non-other then the legendary Allen Iverson, and many believed this rule was most tailored to made him change his ways. Iverson was on top of the world at that time, many basketball fans started to love the sport because of him, so he had way more eyes on him. He defined an era of the game, his influence reach way beyond the court, he changed how basketball was played, and he introduced a new urban style off the court, with his authenticity, cornrows, tattoos, and his diamond chains.
Stern’s decision had its controversies, but in the year of 2021, we can say that the results of this decision has opened up an entire different realm for sports. Today, there are so many NBA players in the front rows of fashion shows, and the attention given to player’s fashion from the loyal fan base across the global is astonishing. NBA players have transformed into global style icons, many of whom now have full time stylist on their retainer. This move made sense for fostering corporate interests, sponsorships, and massive increase in revenue.
LeBron James single handedly change the relationship with fashion forever with a simple pair of headphones. In 2008, the American men’s Olympic basketball team was set to fly to Beijing to compete. Beats has just launched during that time, Jimmy Iovine who has co-founded Beats with Dr. Dre gave a prototype headphones to James while trained for the Olympics. James asked Beats to give headphones to his entire team, and Beat agreed. So when the team walked off the plane and landed here wearing an unknown brand of headphones with the signature letter “B” on them, Beat went mainstream practically overnight.
This is merely an early on case of how influential NBA players have become, but it is important because before Beats and James, basketball players were expected to function in very little possibilities, partnerships thus far were limited to sportswear like Nike, Adidas or Gatorade. So, the Beats moment made history, people realized fans don’t just care about players as athletes, they care about the players as a person.
The dress code took a few years to kick into gear, nowadays, when NBA players walk off a plane or a car, or just walking through the arena tunnels, they are essentially a fashion show on a concrete runway.
Regardless of anyone’s opinion on styles, the convergence of fashion and the NBA can’t be ignored. The dress code has since become less strict, Adam Silver, the new NBA Commissioner believe that as long as the league support its players, they will express their individualities with TLC. Even Iverson came around and praised the current players for what they are expressing through fashion.
The NBA players took a dress code rule, which was made as a form control and confinement, and turned it into an avenue to drive style and culture, and got the players to think about who they are as a person and who they are outside of basketball. They took their frustrating anger, sense of injustice and reshape it as an expression, and to think, this all triggered from that little plastic blue cup.